Monday, 27 April 2009
Friday, 24 April 2009
Well I did it. I managed to leg press 200kg. The first time, I managed 10 reps and the second I managed 30, spurred on by the fact that Tarzan said he would do double the amount I did. ‘At last!’ I thought ‘A chance to make him suffer the way he makes me suffer’. So 30 I did and 60 he did, with sickeningly relative ease I hasten to add. It must be great to be so fit. I left the gym feeling very proud of my achievement and the fact that I’d reached my goal and indeed done so many reps.
A few days later, my back went out. The pain was excruciating. It was my own stupid fault – I’d pushed myself too far trying to prove a point and I have noone to blame but myself! I was out of action for a good few days in a lot of pain.
I had to skip my training with Tarzan this Tuesday but tried to make up for it by doing a walk with my friend who did the Moonwalk for breast cancer, last year. I’d love to walk a marathon someday, so we agreed we would do some gentle walking together. Therefore, we started with a short 3 mile walk, but bearing in mind, my friend is a tall, slim, leggy, superfit, glamourous blonde who’s glided through a marathon with ease and grace, and I was a short, stumpy, rotund novice walker who may be able to lift heavy weights but can’t walk for toffee with a back injury, we must have looked like Little and Large striding out around Tranent. What seemed like a mini marathon to me, but a hop skip and a jump to my friend, was culminated by the fact that we arrived back at my house with me puffing and panting, looking like a walking beetroot and my friend looking like she’d been out for a gentle stroll after a visit to the beauty parlour. I just wanted to keep up the exercise since I was missing the gym, but I guess I am a long way off a marathon at this stage!
I would love to reach another couple of goals, one of walking a marathon and one of climbing a (small) mountain, but considering my walking effort and the fact that I can’t even climb a speed hump at the moment, I’ve got a way to go with both I think.
Although I had to take a few days off, I managed to do most of my lessons with pupils that would throw me around the least, with the help of anti-inflammatory painkillers. However, I began to think the discomfort and the painkillers were getting to me when at one point, I told one of my male pupils to put his ‘handbag’ on instead of his handbrake and I told another pupil to ‘take the next gear in second bend’. I came to the conclusion, that even the most supremely tuned athlete like my good-self, needs to submit to injury at times!
I think Her Ladyship has been feeling it a bit, the fact that her mummy hasn’t been as mobile as normal and she’s had a bit of suppressed energy. I am trying to keep up her training for her sponsored walk but there is no doubt it has waned a bit while I’ve been laid up.
My sister and I took Holly up Arthur’s Seat last week, pre injury, to try a trial walk for her sponsored walk for Animals Asia and she did not too badly only having to stop occasionally for a pee and a pooh (Holly, not my sister!). Once we’d finished our trial walk, we went back to my sisters for a cuppa. Holly was invited to join us and immediately disgraced herself by jumping up on the counter with her front paws to make sure the tea was being made properly. Bearing in mind, only a few short months ago, Holly couldn’t even put one paw in front of the other, never mind lift them off the floor, watching her jump up on the kitchen counter was somewhat a mixed blessing. On one hand I wanted to give her a big cuddle for her amazing progress, but on the other hand, I appreciate that this is somewhat socially unacceptable behaviour that requires some strict parental control and discipline.
Well, if I thought that behaviour was bad, the parental control and discipline were rendered completely null and void when she decided to check out the garden. My sister had gone out to speak to her neighbours, when Holly decided to have a good wander round her garden…..then through the fence to the neighbours garden.... then let herself into the neighbours house through their back door, then had a good wander round their kitchen. I was mortified!! That’s another thing she can do now that she couldn’t do before – move!
Once I’d tracked Her Ladyship down and ended her ‘Breaking and Entering’ spree, I guided her back into my sister’s garden. She then did something that took me by complete and utter surprise, that I would never have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes – she nimbly leapt off a three foot wall!
So, it has been a week of extremes. I’ve been grinding to a halt in pain and misery and Holly has been abseiling down walls and embarking on some criminal activity. In my defence, she’s got youth on her side. After all, it’s true what they say – ‘You know you’re getting old when your back goes out more than you do!’
A few days later, my back went out. The pain was excruciating. It was my own stupid fault – I’d pushed myself too far trying to prove a point and I have noone to blame but myself! I was out of action for a good few days in a lot of pain.
I had to skip my training with Tarzan this Tuesday but tried to make up for it by doing a walk with my friend who did the Moonwalk for breast cancer, last year. I’d love to walk a marathon someday, so we agreed we would do some gentle walking together. Therefore, we started with a short 3 mile walk, but bearing in mind, my friend is a tall, slim, leggy, superfit, glamourous blonde who’s glided through a marathon with ease and grace, and I was a short, stumpy, rotund novice walker who may be able to lift heavy weights but can’t walk for toffee with a back injury, we must have looked like Little and Large striding out around Tranent. What seemed like a mini marathon to me, but a hop skip and a jump to my friend, was culminated by the fact that we arrived back at my house with me puffing and panting, looking like a walking beetroot and my friend looking like she’d been out for a gentle stroll after a visit to the beauty parlour. I just wanted to keep up the exercise since I was missing the gym, but I guess I am a long way off a marathon at this stage!
I would love to reach another couple of goals, one of walking a marathon and one of climbing a (small) mountain, but considering my walking effort and the fact that I can’t even climb a speed hump at the moment, I’ve got a way to go with both I think.
Although I had to take a few days off, I managed to do most of my lessons with pupils that would throw me around the least, with the help of anti-inflammatory painkillers. However, I began to think the discomfort and the painkillers were getting to me when at one point, I told one of my male pupils to put his ‘handbag’ on instead of his handbrake and I told another pupil to ‘take the next gear in second bend’. I came to the conclusion, that even the most supremely tuned athlete like my good-self, needs to submit to injury at times!
I think Her Ladyship has been feeling it a bit, the fact that her mummy hasn’t been as mobile as normal and she’s had a bit of suppressed energy. I am trying to keep up her training for her sponsored walk but there is no doubt it has waned a bit while I’ve been laid up.
My sister and I took Holly up Arthur’s Seat last week, pre injury, to try a trial walk for her sponsored walk for Animals Asia and she did not too badly only having to stop occasionally for a pee and a pooh (Holly, not my sister!). Once we’d finished our trial walk, we went back to my sisters for a cuppa. Holly was invited to join us and immediately disgraced herself by jumping up on the counter with her front paws to make sure the tea was being made properly. Bearing in mind, only a few short months ago, Holly couldn’t even put one paw in front of the other, never mind lift them off the floor, watching her jump up on the kitchen counter was somewhat a mixed blessing. On one hand I wanted to give her a big cuddle for her amazing progress, but on the other hand, I appreciate that this is somewhat socially unacceptable behaviour that requires some strict parental control and discipline.
Well, if I thought that behaviour was bad, the parental control and discipline were rendered completely null and void when she decided to check out the garden. My sister had gone out to speak to her neighbours, when Holly decided to have a good wander round her garden…..then through the fence to the neighbours garden.... then let herself into the neighbours house through their back door, then had a good wander round their kitchen. I was mortified!! That’s another thing she can do now that she couldn’t do before – move!
Once I’d tracked Her Ladyship down and ended her ‘Breaking and Entering’ spree, I guided her back into my sister’s garden. She then did something that took me by complete and utter surprise, that I would never have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes – she nimbly leapt off a three foot wall!
So, it has been a week of extremes. I’ve been grinding to a halt in pain and misery and Holly has been abseiling down walls and embarking on some criminal activity. In my defence, she’s got youth on her side. After all, it’s true what they say – ‘You know you’re getting old when your back goes out more than you do!’
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